The Pentagon has formally notified Congress of its intention to sell “bunker-buster” bombs to Israel:
The Pentagon on Tuesday notified Congress of the possible sale of 5,000lb GBU-28 bombs, developed during the 1991 Gulf war to destroy Saddam Hussein’s hardened command centres. Congress has 30 days to object.
Any deal would be the first sale of the Lockheed Martin-built munition to a foreign country.
In January, Dick Cheney, US vice-president, suggested that Israel might take military action if the US and European Union failed to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions.
Financial Times
Call this Bolton-style diplomacy: bullying, blustering attempts to coerce others into doing what you want them to do in an obnoxious and aggressive way, without any regard for anybony else’ opinions or considerations, and without any regard for likely consequences; “let them hate us so long as they fear us”.
The problem is that, as more and more countries end up on the sharp end of US diplomacy, they are are all preparing various ways to protect themselves from its consequences, and are thus actively undermining US policies and goals. With the US so massively dependent on foreign oil (remember that all significant oil producers (including Iran, Venezuela, Russia or even Norway) can make prices skyrocket today by withholding their capacity, as there is no spare capacity available elsewhere around the world to fill the void that would be created) and foreign capital (2 billion dollars per day are required from foreign capital holders), the military is not the only way to exert power, and the US could soon find itself in a highly uncomfortable position.
I wonder if this is the goal of the US administration: step up the provocations so that any of these countries decide on a course of action which can be labelled as an “aggression” by the US and used as a pretext for military action, the only field where the US has a clear superiority?
In the meantime, you should act and contact your Representative to warn them of the danger of provoking Iran (and pissing off a number of other countries, including the poor Europeans who are still naively trying to keep the Iranians at the negotiating table) by selling these bombs to Israel.
It’s still time to act to block that particular item of madness.
Sometimes, you have to wonder if they are not really yearning for a good war. This looks so much like a calculated provocation that it gets you wondering if the goal is not precisely to piss off some countries (in that case Iran) and get them to act in ways that could easily be portrayed by the US as acts of aggression (I am thinking some form of oil embargo – even only if it comes from a small reduction of supply) and thus grounds for military action.
This can still be killed by Congress, so you still have a say!
I’m still trying to understand how starting WW111 is going to make the world safer? When most Americans wake up to the fact of what bush administration is really doing here it’s going to be too dam late.
Well I’ll send off another email but I’m not feeling exactly optomistic here at 2 in the morning.
used in Afghanistan? I hope this does not happen.
Of course the US administration wants war. Their intention is world domination as described in Project for a New American Century.
[Slightly off-topic]
BTW Canada is the number two supplier of oil to the USA and our government is unstable right now. A vote of no confidence is hanging by a thread and that will precipitate another election. A right wing government could take over and that government would agree to send troops to Iraq. Am I nervous about this?
.
Is mostly perception, vocal and less substance.
Call this Bolton-style diplomacy: bullying, blustering attempts to coerce …
These bombs plus the “daisy cutters” were used in Afghanistan. One hundred, unsophisticated GBU-28 bombs is probably a smaller investment than a single nuclear bomb.
When U.S. planes dropped “daisy cutter” bombs on Taliban troop formations, the Afghan militia literally never knew what had hit them. They never knew that a non-nuclear weapon so powerful even existed.
The 6,750 kg (14,850 lb) Daisy Cutter — about the size of a Volkswagen — is pushed out of a plane and is designed to kill troops within at least 550 metres of the blast.
This time the United States is making sure that it gives maximum publicity to a new weapon whose claim to fame is that it is the most powerful conventional bomb in its arsenal.
My worry is the development and implementation of tactical mini-nuclear devices. The US is likely to be working on development, design and computer-testing of these models. The present Bush | Cheney regime tries to work around the earlier treaties with the Soviet Union, now Putin’s Russia, and it really pisses off the Kremlin.
Once the micro-nuke called the B61-11, is added to the US [and Israel’s] arsenal for the Middle-East and used as per Bush’s pre-emptive strike doctrine, the world will be closer to WWIII. Inherently, the threshold to use these “small” devices would be lower, increasing the first-strike risk of any other third country. Particularly worrisome would be India and Pakistan. Musharraf has hailed its nuclear potential as the first Muslim nuclear deterrent. By exerting too much military pressure on Iran, or a first strike by the US or Israel, the region will again explode in an anti-US and anti-christian movement for decades. The largest Muslim nation, Indonesia is at this moment lost to a pro-Osama and anti-Bush sentiment.
Policy can’t solely be determined at cabinet level, between presidents or foreign ministers, but the perception at the grassroots level or public opinion must be won. It’s “democracy” that decides elections, see the recent gains of Islamists in Saudi Arabia.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
at boardroom level.
Israel will also be needing a “loan” with which to purchase their new bombs.
This is World War III, policy to be determined, which may yet become my sig.
Sometimes being addlebrained is fun.
I remember Kerry’s insistence that the most important action item on his agenda was nuclear proliferation – legitimate and illegal sales – among and between terrorists and/or nations hostile to the U.S.
Another one bites the dust.
Whatever people now say about Kerry and his so-called ‘failures’ during the election. HE IS NOT INSANE. Oh gawd, I just felt such a pain of regret over the 2004 election.
The GBU-28 is not one of the massive bombs like the ‘daisy cutter’ or the MOAB. Those both consist of a shitload of explosives wrapped in a bomb casing so large it’s dropped from a cargo plane.
The GBU-28, on the other hand, was rapidly developed for Gulf War I for the express purpose of defeating fortified underground bunkers. It’s a surplus 155mm artillery cannon barrel fitted with explosives, a ground-penetration fuzing system, and fins.
I only mention the technical details because under normal circumstances, I believe we’d sell these components (or plans to build the fuzing system) to Israel quietly. After all, who’d blink at selling the Israelis replacement barrels for their artillery cannon?
This is very clearly a calculated move intended to send a signal to the Middle East — this is a weapon that is used against command bunkers, not field troops. The message is that “What the US did to the Iraqi command staff in their bunkers, the Israelis can now do to you, so don’t fuck with them.”
-AG
[5.0] Modern Glide Bombs. They’re all there.
Confronted with deeply-buried Iraqi command bunkers, the USAF found that even Paveway IIIs built around the hardened BLU-109 bomb weren’t good enough, and a crash program was put in motion to build something better. The new “bunker-busting” bomb, the “GBU-28/B”, was prototyped in 17 days, using scrapped 203 millimeter (8 inch) artillery barrels with Paveway III kits attached.
A single test drop was performed at the Tonopah Test Range in Utah, with the bomb burying itself so deep that it could not be found. More GBU-28s were quickly built, airlifted to the Gulf, and immediately used to attack hardened Iraqi installations. Each GBU-28 weighed 2,250 kilograms (5,000 pounds). It consisted of a guidance kit attached to a BLU-113/B core munition, mentioned in an earlier chapter.
The GBU-28 was also used in the American war in Afghanistan in the winter of 2001:2002, carried by B-52s and F-15Es, which are the only aircraft currently qualified to carry the weapon. Only a limited batch was built in the first place, and stocks ran low during the campaign. The Air Force wants to buy a few hundred more, using a new, cheaper, harder steel for the casing, a more powerful explosive for the filling, and possibly some minor case design changes to improve penetration. Production of the new batch is expected to start in 2005.
The Arms Control and Export Act controls the sale. Thomas search with the above in quotes will get you to the “Executive Communication”(s) listing proposed sales.
Whoops. Looks like I got the barrel gauge wrong in my post above — forgot it was the 203mm barrels from an artillery system no longer in use.
-AG
I saw this in the FT this morning and then I saw it got picked up by a variety of news agencies around the world.
First, I agree with your proposition to call Congress critters to warn them not to let this happen.
However I think my interpretation of this fairly well-publicized event is that it was designed specifically for the PR value. For a long time, the US has been rattling the saber against Iran but a lot of people feel like it’s more or less an empty threat.
Could the US drop some bombs and even potentially disable all the nuclear development facilities? Perhaps. But it wouldn’t destabilize the government or cause a revoltion. And it would just inflame a worldwide jihad and angry sentiment from even allies like Spain, Italy and Russia.
In other words it would piss off everyone and do nothing productive. What I think is that the neocons in the White House are absolutely jonesing to get control over Iran and yet don’t know of any possible way to do it without starting WW3.
Which I’m sure some of them are pushing for WW3, but that’s really the only option left on the table. The military is too weak to take on Iran and there aren’t enough buyable allies for a coalition invasion.
If Iran could be controlled, it would make American hegemony complete. That is why its driving them nuts. So this proposed sale of these bombs to Israel is just more rattling the saber in frustration at being unable to draw the sword. And the ayatollahs in Tehran must be laughing through their beards at seeing Grampy Satan so impotent.
If somehow Israel DOES get these bombs, the first place they’ll be dropping them is Syria, not Iran.
Pax
but I still see them itching for a reason to start military action, thus the provocations in the meantime.
good I will call my representative and my Senators Clinton and Schumer to make sure that they do NOT block this sale. I support and I belive my Senators also will support efforts to secure Israel from her enemies.